[MainMemory]

With Scrap Brain Zone Act 1 and Scrap Brain Zone Act 2, I've finished all the levels in Sonic 1.

I've also updated LZ/SBZ3 to allow three settings for water: None, Partial, and Full. GHZ has been updated to add an option for the Title Screen palette (you should delete the GHZ folder before updating it). I've also made the level list in the config dialog a bit larger.

[Josh]

Just updated everything, it looks awesome! Shame about the vertical level height. I use the CNZ background for my intro on YouTube, and when I designed the newest version, I noticed there was a black strip at the top. So I copied the video, flipped it upside down, and reversed it to fill out the sky.

Mushroom Hill and _especially_ Star Light are my favorites so far.

[Covarr]

Does it need to be hard capped at 60fps? My display (and more and more gaming monitors these days) runs natively at 144, and it'd be nice to at least run at 72 to eliminate microstutter.

[MainMemory]

The problem with running at more than 60fps is that everything that's not strictly camera-based would move faster, unless I rewrote a whole lot of code. I could do it, yes, but I'm not sure if it would be worthwhile.
Also would your CPU even be able to handle that?

Josh: Maybe someday I'll go back and figure out a way to extend these levels vertically in a way that looks natural.

This post has been edited by MainMemory: 23 May 2015 - 11:02 PM

[MainMemory]

So, funny story: I wanted to see what framerate I was actually getting, so I added an FPS display, and even though I had it set to 60fps, it wasn't going over 32fps. When I looked at the documentation for the Timer class, it said "Because the Timer class depends on the system clock, it has the same resolution as the system clock. This means that the Elapsed event will fire at an interval defined by the resolution of the system clock if the Interval property is less than the resolution of the system clock. The following example sets the Interval property to 5 milliseconds. When run on a Windows 7 system whose system clock has a resolution of approximately 15 milliseconds, the event fires approximately every 15 milliseconds rather than every 5 milliseconds." Guess how many milliseconds a frame lasts at 32fps.

So, I ditched the timer for a loop with a high-resolution Stopwatch, and now I get 62fps on every level... except Marble Zone, for some reason.

The FPS counter is now an option in the config dialog, though it may be a bit glitchy at first fixed. I've received a report that the screensaver now runs slower on Linux, so sorry to any Linux users.

This post has been edited by MainMemory: 25 May 2015 - 12:26 AM

[ICEknight]

I hadn't found about this until today, and I must say it's really cool!

My suggestions:
-Option for x2 or x3 (pixellated) zoom. Perhaps it could also autodetect the needed zoom for making the shortest map go full screen?
-Option for making it also scroll up and down through the map, in a configurable wave pattern.
-HLSL support for a "TV effect" on fast computers.

This post has been edited by ICEknight: 26 May 2015 - 02:25 PM

[MainMemory]

On your first suggestion, allow me to quote myself:

MainMemory, on 18 May 2015 - 12:29 PM, said:

I tried adding scaling to EHZ, and even at just 2x scale, the framerate dropped massively. I would have to come up with a much faster scaling method than the one SonLVL has currently and the one GDI+ gives me.

The second is something I have considered since the beginning, but I don't know how such a setting would be presented, and there's the issue where not every level can scroll vertically, or to the same amounts. Additionally, the screensaver program has no idea about how tall each level is. I could add an API, but then everyone would have to redownload all the levels when they update the screensaver. Furthermore, some levels tile indefinitely vertically, like SBZ2.
For the third, HLSL would require rewriting the screensaver to use Direct3D.

[Hendricks 266]

MainMemory, on 26 May 2015 - 02:58 PM, said:

On your first suggestion, allow me to quote myself:

At 1080p resolutions and higher, software renderers (such as 8-bit classic mode in EDuke32) bump up against the limits of CPU speed, so you would need to rewrite it to utilize GPU acceleration (OpenGL or Direct3D, as you mentioned).

That said, I'm thoroughly enjoying this screensaver.

This post has been edited by Hendricks 266: 27 May 2015 - 10:59 AM

[MainMemory]

Well I don't know how to do any of this stuff with D3D, or anything about OGL. Maybe if the scrolling was done in software and the image rendered with 3D hardware acceleration (level backgrounds aren't usually that large, GHZ and MZ being notable exceptions)? Although, according to what I've read, GDI+/GDI might be hardware accelerated already?

Also, I've been tweaking some levels to use a new API (that means you need to update the screensaver too) that makes GHZ and MZ a lot faster. GHZ hits 60fps now and MZ is like 55fps on my machine. Other levels were updated, but they weren't particularly suffering from slowdown. I plan on using this new method for most of the levels eventually.

Also also, 60fps YT vid:

Yes, it's upscaled 800x600 video, my computer can't record at 1366x768 and maintain 60fps.

This post has been edited by MainMemory: 26 May 2015 - 10:06 PM

[Blivsey]

Part of the bottom of Hidden Palace Zone is misaligned. Is that something you can't do much about because of how disassemblies work, or just something that was overlooked?

[MainMemory]

Getting back to porting backgrounds, starting with Chemical Plant Zone. I had considered adding water, but decided against it for now, because unlike Labyrinth Zone, CPZ's water doesn't affect scrolling.

I've also updated several levels to make them run faster, and added some new API stuff to the screensaver (which CPZ uses), so you may want to redownload everything.

@Blivsey: does it still happen after the update? If so, where exactly?

Edit: fixed bug with tall screens in CPZ.

This post has been edited by MainMemory: 06 June 2015 - 05:04 PM

[Blivsey]

MainMemory, on 06 June 2015 - 01:48 PM, said:

@Blivsey: does it still happen after the update? If so, where exactly?

It's fixed now.

[Overlord]

MainMemory, on 06 June 2015 - 01:48 PM, said:

I've also updated several levels to make them run faster, and added some new API stuff to the screensaver (which CPZ uses), so you may want to redownload everything.

Been meaning to ask this, but can you make one zip with everything in as well as the existant ones, so that we don't have to keep redownloading and extracting 10 ZIPs every time? At the very least an option for every level in one zip with the main program seperate would be useful.

[MainMemory]

Sure.

Edit: Aquatic Ruin Zone

Edit2: Mystic Cave Zone

This post has been edited by MainMemory: 08 June 2015 - 11:01 AM

[Overlord]

Much obliged. Thanks again for all your work on this!